Current Position

Highest Degree

I primarily study how affect (e.g., moods and emotions) influences the way we think about and perceive the world and people around us.

Something of a great truth in the affect-cognition literature is the idea that the cognitive consequences of affect are etched in psychological stone. Positive and negative emotions, for example, have distinct cognitive and perceptual effects: positive moods make people think in superficial ways, and negative moods make people think more analytically; happy people are quick to focus on the forest, and sad people are quick to focus on the trees; and so forth.

My research turns this great truth on its head by showing that the influence of affect on cognition is highly flexible. I take as a theoretical starting point the view that positive and negative affect influence cognition simply by providing information about the value or validity of accessible thoughts and styles of thinking (Clore & Huntsinger, 2009; Huntsinger & Clore, 2012; Huntsinger, Isbell & Clore, in press; Huntsinger & Schnall, 2013). Positive affect serves as a “go signal” that encourages the use of mental content and negative affect serves as a “stop signal” that discourages the use of such content. Thus, rather than assuming a direct or dedicated connection between affect and styles of cognitive processing, this view implies that the impact of affect on cognition should be quite malleable and depend on what thoughts and responses happen to be in mind at the time. Further, the reason that affect appeared to have fixed effects on cognition in past research is that, across people and situations, the same thoughts and styles of thinking are usually highly accessible.

Primary Interests:

Attitudes and Beliefs

Emotion, Mood, Affect

Intergroup Relations

Motivation, Goal Setting

Prejudice and Stereotyping

Social Cognition

Research Group or Laboratory:

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